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The National Geographic Magazine, later shortened to National Geographic, is the official journal of the National Geographic Society. It published its first issue nine months after the Society was founded. It has become one of the world's best-known magazines and is immediately identifiable by the characteristic yellow border running around the edge of its cover.
There are 12 monthly issues of National Geographic per year, plus additional map supplements. On rare occasions, special editions are also issued. It contains articles about geography, popular science, world history, current events and photography. The current Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic Magazine is the famed wildlife photographer, Chris Johns.
Articles
In later years the once-benign articles became outspoken on issues such as environment, deforestation, global warming, and endangered species. Series of articles were included focusing on the history of specific products such as a single metal, gem, food crop, or agricultural product, or an archeological discovery. Occasionally an entire month's issue would be devoted to a single country, past civilization, natural resource, or other theme. Also in recent decades, the National Geographic Society unveiled alternative magazines with different focuses (described in Wikipedia article on "National Geographic Society").
During the Cold War, the magazine committed itself to presenting a balanced view of the physical and human geography of nations beyond the Iron Curtain. The magazine printed articles on Berlin, de-occupied Austria, the Soviet Union, and Communist China that deliberately downplayed politics to focus on culture. In its coverage of the Space Race, National Geographic focused on the scientific achievement while largely avoiding reference to the race's connection to nuclear arms buildup.
Photography
In addition to being well-known for articles about scenery, history, and the most distant corners of the world; the magazine has also long been recognized for its book-like quality and its standard of photography. This standard makes it the home to some of the highest-quality photojournalism in the world. The magazine began to feature color photography in the early 20th century, when this technology was still rare. During the 1930s, Luis Marden (1913-2003), a writer and photographer for National Geographic, convinced the magazine to allow its photographers to use small 35mm cameras loaded with Kodachrome film over bulkier cameras with tripods and glass plates. In 1959, the magazine started publishing photographs on its covers. In subsequent years, the magazine cover, while keeping its yellow border, shed its oak leaf trim and bare table of contents, for a large photograph taken from one of the month's articles inside. National Geographic, more than most other magazines, was often prized and kept by subscribers for years, and sometimes re-sold at thrift stores.
Supplmenting the articles, the magazine sometimes provides maps of the regions visited. The Society's map archives have been used by the United States government in instances where its own cartographic resources were limited. In 2001, National Geographic released an eight-CD-ROM set containing all its maps from 1888 to December 2000.
Sharbat Gula
One cover photo in 1985 was of an Afghan refugee, a young girl with green eyes. After the US-led invasion of Afghanistan a search was conducted for the girl. She was identified in 2002 as Sharbat Gula, a Pashtun. Her story was told in the April 2002 issue of National Geographic and in a National Geographic television documentary. A fund named after Gula was created and originally funded by the Society and contributed to by thousands of readers which resulted in a partnership between National Geographic and the Asia Foundation in the creation of a girls' school in Afghanistan that taught hundreds of teenage girls with both a vocational and basic education, in addition to a hot meal and health care. The funds also contributed to the construction of a public school for girls in Kabul.
Language editions
In 1995, National Geographic began publishing in Japanese, its first local language edition. The magazine is now published in thirty-one (31) different language editions around the world, including: English on a worldwide basis, Bulgarian, traditional character Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.
In April 2005, an Indonesian edition launched, published by Gramedia Majalah - Jakarta. A Bulgarian edition of the magazine launched in November, 2005 and a Slovenian edition launched in May, 2006. Pending approval by the government of China for publishing National Geographic in simplified Chinese, National Geographic publishes in association with Trends Publications in Beijing a magazine called "Global Geography."
In contrast to the United States, where membership in the National Geographic Society was until recently the only way to receive the magazine, the worldwide editions are sold on newsstands in addiiton to regular subscriptions. In several countries, such as Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and Turkey, National Geographic paved the way for a subscription model in addition to traditional newsstand sales.
Publication history
1915
January
Glimpses of Holland; The City of Jacqueline; Some Personal Experiences with Earthquakes; From the War-path to the Plow; Partitioned Poland
January
Taiwan; Remote Sensing; Oregon's Many Faces; Lanzarote, The Strangest Canary; The Quetzal, Fabulous Bird of Maya Land
March
The Magic Lure of Sea Shells; South Korea; Wisconsin's Door Peninsula; Wild Elephant Roundup in India; Foxes Foretell the Future in Mali's Dogon Country
December
First Explorers on the Moon; Yankee Sails Turkey's History-Haunted Coast; Inside a Hornbill's Walled-up Nest; Chartres, Lovely Legacy of the Age of Faith
August
The Land Where the Murray Flows; Our Restless Planet Earth; Fossils; The Pearl; Senegambia - A Now and Future Nation
May
India's Wildlife Dilemma; The Great Eclipse; The Gift of Gardening; Georgia Fights for Nationhood; DNA Profiling
July
South Africa’s Parks; Silver Bank Wreck; Syria; Gobi Dinosaurs; Olympics; Short Takes
August
Special Mexico Issue - Tijuana and the Border; Mexico City; Heartland; Chiapas
September
Scotland; Gaza; Searching for the Scythians; Hawk High Over Four Corners; Tarantulas; The Essential Element of Fire
October
Morocco; Storm Watch Over the Kurils; Traversing Baffin Island; China’s Warriors Rise From the Earth; Royal Gold of the Asante Empire; Life Without Light
November
Orbit; Botanist Joseph Banks; Gibraltar; Bowie Seamount; Colorado’s Front Range; Portia Spiders; Running the Shuiluo River
December
Genghis Khan; The Shenandoah; Believing Las Vegas; Straight Up Ice; Reinventing Berlin; Feather Star Crinoids
January
The Nile Delta; Peruvian Mummies Revisited; Tree Giants of North America; Joseph Rock, Our Man in China; Beneath the Tasman Sea; Field Notes 1996; Sri Lanka
February
Sons of Genghis Khan; An Arctic Breakthrough; Lichens, More Than Meets the Eye; The Dawn of Humans; Siberian Tigers; Under New York
March
Boom Times on the Gold Coast of China; Hong Kong; Moths Come to Light; Our National Forests; The Magic of Paper; Kaliningrad; Bearded Seals
April
Time Exposures; Traveling the Australian Dog Fence; Borneo’s Strangler Fig Trees; The Yellowstone; Moscow, the New Revolution; Oil on Ice
May
India; Iceland’s Trial by Fire; La Salle’s Last Voyage; The Dawn of Humans; Hunting the Mighty Python; Biking Across the Alaska Range
June
Charting a New Course; Black Pearls of French Polynesia; Restoring Old Ironsides; Nature’s Masterwork; The Human-Cat Connection; Okinawa; Hemingway’s Many Hearted Fox River; Central Africa’s Cycle of Violence
July
The Power and the Glory of the Roman Empire; Sumo; Robot Revolution; Dawn of Humans; The Grand Managed Canyon; Montserrat
August
Islands at the Edge; A New Light in the Sea; The Frozen Face of Thalay Sagar; The World According to Rome; Oregon’s Outback; Malaysia; Malaysia’s Secret Realm
September
China’s Three Gorges; Route 66; Racing With the Wind; Beirut Rising; The Dawn of Humans; A Dream Called Nunavut; The Siren Song of Everest
October
Down the Zambezi; The Americana Series; The Promise of Pakistan; Parasites; The Most Ancient Americans; Vincent van Gogh
November
Aging; Wilderness Rafting Siberian Style; Quebec’s Quandary; Portrait of a Village; A Special Place; Flies That Fight; Nepal’s Forgotten Corner;
December
Making Room for Wild Tigers; Sita; Australia by Bike; The Royal Crypts of Copán; The Age of Comets; Scaling the Dragon’s Spires; Uncovering Patagonia’s Lost World
National Geographic.com * Accessed 3 June, 2006
References and notes
"National Geographic Magazine"